Roundup - 26/01/2010

• Five legislators in Hong Kong have resigned their seats in a bid to promote democratic reform. The legislators, from the League of Social Democrats and the Civic Party, hope that the five resulting by-elections will be viewed as a referendum on democratic reform in Hong Kong. Currently Hong Kong's legislature is only partly elected and its Chief Executive is elected by a committee appointed by Beijing. China has said that the chief executive should not be directly elected until 2017 and the legislature until 2020. However, the pro-democracy parties want the reforms to be in place by 2012.
  
  
  
• Envoys of the Dalai Lama are to meet Chinese officials in Beijing tomorrow for the ninth round of talks since 2002 on the future of Tibet. The talks have a continuous history of going nowhere. Chinese officials are expected to demand that the Dalai Lama renounce violent separatism while the Dalai's envoys will reaffirm his commitment to a peaceful road to semi-autonomy for Tibet.
  
  China is beginning a new ten-year plan for Tibet which will continue to further open up the plateau and develop the economy. Tibetan exiles say that this increases ethnic tensions due to the huge influx of non-Tibetan Chinese. However, China hopes that tensions will be diffused if it succeeds in its plan to raise the incomes of rural Tibetans to the national average.
  
  
  
• Associated Press has reported that the Obama administration has decided to continue with controversial arms sales to Taiwan. The new sale is said to include UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles. However, the sale will not include F-16 fighters as these were deemed to be too provocative. The sale of arms to Taiwan is a major thorn in the side of Sino-US relations.
  
  
  
• China's Ministry of Environmental Protection has announced that it will exceed its targets for the reduction of two key pollutants. The 11^th five year plan (2006-10) prescribed cuts of 10% of sulphur dioxide and chemical oxygen demand, a major indicator of water pollution. They say that, by the end of the year, they will have reduced an additional 400,000 tons of SO2 and 200,000 tons of COD.
  
  The 12^th five year plan (2011-15) will contain similar targets with the addition of nitrogen oxide and ammonia nitrogen to the list of chemicals set to be reduced.
  

Roundup - 05/01/2010

• Three counties in Shaanxi have warned their 850,000 residents to avoid drinking tainted water after a major oil spill. Up to 150,000 litres of oil leaked from an oil pipeline between Gansu and Henan. According to CNPC the accident was caused during construction work by a 'third party.' The oil spilled into two tributaries of the Yellow River, into which it is now believed to be seeping. However, authorities claim to have controlled much of the spill and hope to prevent it from reaching the major cities further downstream.
  
  
  
• The dissident, Liu Xiaobo, is appealing his conviction on charges of incitement to subversion of state power. Liu was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Dec.25^th after a year in detention for his role in drafting the Charter 08 petition. Charter 08 called for far reaching democratic reforms and received more than 10,000 signatures before it was removed from the internet. Shang Baojun, a lawyer handling Mr Liu's case said that the appeal was submitted on Dec 29^th to the Beijing Supreme People's Court. The court must now consider the appeal within 45 days.
  
  
  
• China has reiterated its preference for negotiation over sanctions in deal with Iran's nuclear issue. Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, Jiang Yu, said that 'dialogue and negotiations are the right ways of properly solving the Iran nuclear issue, and here is still room for diplomatic efforts.'
  
  The statement comes as the US considers organising sanctions on Iran. The US imposed an end of year deadline for Iran to agree to a US scheme for exchanging nuclear fuel which demanded simultaneous exchange within Iran. Iran has now set and end of month deadline for an agreement on its own terms. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that after a month Iran would continue to enrich uranium itself if the deal was not agreed and declared this to be 'an ultimatum.'
  
  
  
• Eight steelworkers have died in an accident in Dalian, Liaoning. According to Xinhua, the eight men fainted suddenly while repairing an electrical device in an underground pumping station. Traces of carbon monoxide were found in their blood but doctors have suggested that they could have died for oxygen deficiency as the pumping station had been sealed for some time.
  
  
  
• Police in Shenzhen have launched an investigation into a wedding which has caused public outrage because of its size. Liu Shenqiang, deputy director of the Shenzhen airport police, said that he was forced to throw such a lavish banquet for his daughter's wedding because they had so many friends. However, media reports and public opinion have questioned whether it was really necessary to spend US$88,000 on over 1000 guests. Wedding guests are traditionally expected to give gifts of cash to cover the costs of weddings. However, as nobody knows the amounts given, this is often a convenient way to give cash to officials.
  
  
  
• Harsh weather conditions have continued to cause problems in Northern China. A train heading from Harbin to Baotou was trapped on Sunday evening after running into snow more than 2m deep. Other long distance trains and internal flights were also disrupted.
  
  Beijing however has managed to clear the roads and keep traffic running after the worst snowfall in 60 years. More than 20,000 workers were dispatched with snow-dissolving agents between Saturday night and Monday morning to ensure that people could get to work at the start of the week.
  

Roundup - 04/01/2010

• A major oil spill in Shaanxi province is threatening to contaminate the Yellow River. 150,000 litres of diesel oil leaked from a pipeline belonging to the China National Petroleum Corporation on Wednesday. Reports of the spill only came out on Sunday when water quality monitors at the Sanmenxia resevoir began detecting small quantities of diesel. It is not known whether local authorities were informed before this.
  
  More than 700 workers are trying to contain the spill and have been told by Vice-Premier Li Keqiang that they must contain the spill before it contaminates the Yellow River. The Yellow river is a source of drinking water for approximately 140 million people along its 5,500 km stretch.
  
  
  
• Cold whether and snow have caused chaos across northern China. 90 per cent of flights to and from Beijing's Capital International Airport were canceled on Sunday as Beijing received its heaviest snowfall since 1951. Temperatures in the capital are expected to drop to -16C, further disrupting air and ground traffic.
  
  China's Central Meteorological Station issued a third orange alert on Sunday evening predicting that some areas could see a temperature drop of up to 18C. Agricultural experts have been sent out to major wheat producing regions to help protect crops.
  
  
  
• China's Central Military Commission has released guidelines on strengthening party building in the People's Liberation Army. The guidelines, approved by CMC Chairman and President Hu Jintao, focus on developing grass-roots party organisations, strengthening measures against corruption and helping the party with ideological work. A CMC statement stressed the importance of “the absolute leadership of the Communist Party of China over the armed forces.”
  
  
  
• New officials have been appointed by the State Council, including three new vice-foreign ministers. Cui Tiankai, Fu Ying, and Zhai Jun each have their own specialities. Cui Tiankai has spent many years with the Chinese delegation to the UN before heading the Policy Research Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Fu Ying has served as Ambassador to the UK since 2007. Before that she was Ambassador to Australia, she has also led negotiating teams in nuclear talks with North Korea. Zhai Jun's focus is the Middle East and North Africa. He was Director General of the Department of West Asian and North African Affairs 2003-2006 and Ambassador to Libya 1997-2000.
  
  
  
• The family of executed Briton, Akmal Shaikh, has written to British Foreign Secretary David Miliband asking for an inquiry into the death. Akmal's brother, Akbar said that the lack of information given them was the cause of “incredible grief and torment.” According to Clive Stafford Smith, the lawyer and head of Reprieve, “nobody told the family how or where he would be killed. No family member or independent observer was allowed to witness his death, view his body or verify his burial. We have only the word of a press release that he was even killed.”
  

Roundup - 25/11/2009

• The Chinese press is reporting a statement by Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun that greater flexibility may be introduced in the Renminbi's exchange rate. China has already made the exchange rate slightly more flexible after the recession and the People's Bank of China said it was in the process of reforming the exchange rate system a month ago but there is still strong international pressure for further reform.
  
  The statement is in part aimed at the European Union. The 12^th China-EU Summit is due to be held in Nanjing next week and exchange rate reform is expected to be the central issue alongside trade and climate-change. EU Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, Luxembourg Prime Minister Lean-Claude Juncker and Joaquin Almunia, EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs will hold talks on the issue with Premier Wen Jiabao and central bank officials the day before the summit.
  

• 'Fog' has delayed at least 280 flights in and out of Beijing today. The 'fog,' often a term used instead of pollution, followed several days of hazardous pollution levels reported by the US embassy's Twittered air quality index.
  

• Xinhua reports a statement by Li Gao from the National Development and Reform Commission and a key negotiator at the upcoming Copenhagen summit. He says that China will make a 'constructive contribution and 'will not accept that it ends with an empty and so-called political declaration.' The statement follows US President Obama's attempts to dispel widespread pessimism surrounding the summit.
  

• The BBC reports that web browser Opera has closed a loophole allowing users in China to access government banned websites. Users were asked to upgrade to a Chinese version at the weekend to find that the new version does not allow access to sites such as Facebook. The BBC reports that Opera was not prepared to discuss the 'background for this decision.'
  

• Xinhua reports that three Chinese policemen have been jailed for torturing a student to death to extract a confession. Xu Gengrong was questioned over the death of a female student in Shaanxi and died on the 8^th of March shortly after 'suddenly falling ill.' The police, including a county-level police chief, were jailed for between 1 and 2 and a half years for charges including criminal abuse of power and using torture to extract a confession.
  

• The People's Daily carries an article on Hu Jintao's elaboration of his Theory of Profound Changes. Stating that the time we live in is full of 'opportunities and challenges' he highlights the importance of science and technology, newly-emerging industries and the knowledge economy for China's future. This seems to be a way of countering the current relationships of power; 'strong north and weak south, strong west and weak east.'
  
  He also points to the issue of global security and make a veiled comment on the US presence in Central Asia, 'certain hot issues can not get resolved for a long time.'